Briere still has faith in Flyers

Danny Briere’s kids still live and go to school in South Jersey, even as he is reliving a little bit of youth, playing hockey in his home province of Quebec.

Briere, now a member of the Montreal Canadiens, will welcome back his old Flyers teammates Saturday before squaring off against them at the Bell Centre. He’s been following them as much as he can, says he’s confident their various problems can be ironed out and that they’ll have a good season.

He doesn’t want that to start quite yet.

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“It’s kind of a weird feeling,” Briere said Friday in a conference call from Montreal. “You’re excited to see them, but it’s also weird to face them. We all know when the puck drops it gets competitive.”

Briere knows the Flyers had a poor preseason, saw that they were only 1-for-7 in their Wednesday opener against Toronto on the power play, which Briere was a big part of for much of the last six seasons.

He still thinks his old team’s issues will clear up — hopefully not until after Saturday.

“You can’t lose faith too quickly,” Briere said. “I think they have a lot of firepower. It’s not going to be too long for them to get going. ... But hopefully it lasts one more game.”

Although he was booed heavily and often when visiting Montreal while a member of the Flyers — Canadiens fans felt he should have signed with their team as a free agent in 2007, when he left Buffalo and went to Philadelphia — Briere is now a returning hero of sorts after signing a two-year, $8 million deal last summer.

That money was on top of the approximately $2.2 million (spread over 14 years) Briere will receive as the first of two compliance buyouts the Flyers used after last season for cap relief. Current Las Vegas Wranglers goalie gambler Ilya Bryzgalov was the other.

With a $5 million cap hit, and a front-loaded contract that was down to a $2 million salary level, he was an obvious choice to be released. Briere had two years left on his Philly deal at the time.

“No hard feelings,” he said. “They were very respectful. It was agreed upon, it was fair. ... I understood completely.”

One of Briere’s sons is with him for the weekend to watch him face his old team. He’ll also welcome back a familiar friend — Sean Couturier, who lived with Briere and his family the first 18 months he was a Flyer.

“We talked once in a while and we’re still in touch; he’s a good friend,” Couturier said. “It’s a special game for both of us. ... Since Day 1, he took me under his wing and kind of adopted me. I felt like a big brother to his kids. It was a fun experience.”

Jake Voracek also acknowledged the void created by Briere’s departure, but has been around long enough to grow accustomed to the ever increasing player movement in the league.

“Obviously it’s going to be a little weird,” Voracek said, “but it’s hockey. The players come and go. It’s a business; that’s what it is. We’re happy for him that he got signed in Montreal. There’s a lot of history there.”

Briere felt it almost immediately. As the Canadiens opened their season at home Tuesday night, the traditional passing of the torch in Montreal saw him receive it from one of the Canadiens’ living icons.

“It was a pretty special feeling and a very special night,” Briere said, “to be the first one to get the torch from one of the all-time greats in Guy LeFleur.”

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Voracek seemed to be a little out of his element during even strength situations Wednesday against the Maple Leafs, as he was playing on a third line with Couturier and Max Talbot rather than next to old top-line partners Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell. But Voracek doesn’t think it’s such a bad idea.

“Claude is always going to play against top defensemen; their shutdown defensemen,” Voracek said. “That should be an advantage for me. I don’t want to say I’m playing against worse players than Claude’s playing against, but not playing against top defensemen, we can take advantage of that. That’s what (coach Peter Laviolette) wants ... spread out that lineup and try to get the offense going.”

Meanwhile, head coach Peter Laviolette would like to see a few pucks start going toward the net.

“I’d like to see 75 more attempts in Montreal and see better results from that,” the cheerful one said. He thinks his third line can contribute to that effort.

“There’s a lot of success with Jake and Sean and Max, when they played together a couple of years ago,” Laviolette said. “But there’s nothing set in stone. We’re looking at it right now.

“We’re looking at things right now and trying to find a little balance throughout the lineup.”